Why have a blog? (2020)(robinwinslow.uk)
robinwinslow.uk
Why have a blog? (2020)
https://robinwinslow.uk/why-have-a-blog
103 comments
> I was asked during an interview how I thought my autism might impact my work
God that makes me angry. Of course I don't know what jurisdiction you're in, but the company should be sued for this. Of course I know it's easy to say this in theory but most people can't afford litigation. But really that should be extremely against the law. You should at least name and shame the company.
On the anonymous thing - yes I know what you mean. I really struggle with overcoming the fear of publishing any significant opinions as myself. But I also find maintaining any sort of anonymity to be a very daunting thought. I'm such an open person generally, and I like that about myself, it would be very strange for me to try to hide like that.
God that makes me angry. Of course I don't know what jurisdiction you're in, but the company should be sued for this. Of course I know it's easy to say this in theory but most people can't afford litigation. But really that should be extremely against the law. You should at least name and shame the company.
On the anonymous thing - yes I know what you mean. I really struggle with overcoming the fear of publishing any significant opinions as myself. But I also find maintaining any sort of anonymity to be a very daunting thought. I'm such an open person generally, and I like that about myself, it would be very strange for me to try to hide like that.
The company should be sued for asking about something the candidate chose to publicly disclose and write on a blog presumably intended to be read by people interested in knowing more about them? Really?
"how do you think becoming pregnant will affect your ability to work?" is also illegal for similar reasons.
Yes, oddly simply knowing something about someone doesn't actually give you the right to discriminate against them.
[deleted]
[deleted]
I had the most visited blog in the spanish blogosphere and I also lost complete interest after it became so popular. I must say Twitter helped to migrate my posting and killing my blog and my day to day job also ruined my desire to writing posts.
This is really interesting - didn't you try to capitalise on your popularity? Monetise it somehow? Or use it to influence the conversations you care about in your industry etc?
I'm scared of backlash, but I think it's also kind of my dream to have that sort of influence. But I can well believe that I couldn't handle it or take advantage of it in practice.
I'm scared of backlash, but I think it's also kind of my dream to have that sort of influence. But I can well believe that I couldn't handle it or take advantage of it in practice.
I've got nice jobs but nothing else.
What country are you in? In EU you have a "right to be forgotten" and you can ask Google to remove you from the search
Honestly it's the same with everything online nowadays. I have an HN account associated with my name, but I'm incredibly sparing with what I post from it. 99% of my HN comments are from an anonymous account. If someone googles my name and finds my HN account they'll see a comment once every month or two where I share things I know about my languages of choice; they definitely won't find my thoughts on social justice, tech culture, etc. It makes me as bland and safe as possible to prospective employers (though I do publicize some of my interests/hobbies from my "doxxed" accounts at least)
> Having a blog at [firstname][lastname].[TLD] where you express anything personal, especially if that includes political views or thoughts on cultural events is probably not a good idea in this day and age.
I see a number of people express this opinion that surprises me; I'd love to know the demographics/background/media consumption of people who would/wouldn't agree with it.
I see a number of people express this opinion that surprises me; I'd love to know the demographics/background/media consumption of people who would/wouldn't agree with it.
Seems self evident. Anything you say without anonymity may be used against you by future employers or future Twitter mob equivalents at any point.
It's impossible to guess what subset of appropriate speech in 2022 will still be appropriate years or decades from now.
It's impossible to guess what subset of appropriate speech in 2022 will still be appropriate years or decades from now.
I don't buy that that's true of "anything" and I wish there were more quantitative data on who perceives that to be the case and why.
(Also, it seems like holders of this opinion think there is non-zero risk but also zero upside. This is strange to me and seems like it must have to do with the specific views people are biting their tongues on.)
(Also, it seems like holders of this opinion think there is non-zero risk but also zero upside. This is strange to me and seems like it must have to do with the specific views people are biting their tongues on.)
I understand the concern, but also we do all have to act as ourselves in public life in many ways - any one of your identifiable actions could always come back to bite you.
If you want to build any kind of public profile or have much influence in life you kinda have to face this risk head-on to some extent.
If you want to build any kind of public profile or have much influence in life you kinda have to face this risk head-on to some extent.
I feel like you have opinions here - that you think certain sorts of groups are more likely to be scared than others. I'm sure that's right, but wondering who you have in mind.
As a straight, white, fairly well-off, more or less neurotypical man, I'm sure I should be in all the privileged groups and so should feel pretty empowered. Maybe that's why I feel like I should be able to blog under my own name.
But I completely understand what OP is saying. I definitely have the fear, and I've toyed with the idea of having an anonymous persona before.
As a straight, white, fairly well-off, more or less neurotypical man, I'm sure I should be in all the privileged groups and so should feel pretty empowered. Maybe that's why I feel like I should be able to blog under my own name.
But I completely understand what OP is saying. I definitely have the fear, and I've toyed with the idea of having an anonymous persona before.
For a little bit there, I would write a blog post whenever I solved a problem that took me more than a few hours to solve. I can’t tell you how many times I have referenced my own post about self-signing local certificates. It’s been a great resource for myself when the problems recur, and I should honestly get back into the habit. It’s worth it just for reference.
I’ve had a couple opinion posts go viral here and elsewhere over the years, and while I found it really exciting, it’s weird how the negativity sticks with you. There was a particularly mean comment probably ten years ago that I still think about when I can’t sleep.
I’ve had a couple opinion posts go viral here and elsewhere over the years, and while I found it really exciting, it’s weird how the negativity sticks with you. There was a particularly mean comment probably ten years ago that I still think about when I can’t sleep.
We’ll I think you’re great and that other person is a poopy head.
yeah, 1 negative comment sticks in your head more than 100 positive ones. Not sure what the actual psychological explanation for that is but it's true in my experience
I don't remember if it has a name, but the theory is that there's more of an evolutionary advantage to remembering and avoiding bad things, because one significant enough bad event takes you out of the gene pool.
I shouldn't ask but I wonder what the comment was. There's a weird individuality to internet comments. We all read the same comments and sometimes walk away with a meaning that only matters to us, which we rarely share with others. I wonder, should there be second order discussions about public comments?
It wasn't even that pointed. I don't remember the exact wording but the comment was basically someone telling me I had no right to criticize a language's choices until I'd written a compiler myself.
It's is clearly nonsense, the same kind of logic as people who hate movie critics, but it's gotten a rent-free place in my head for years now.
Something just about the tone of the comment made it stick in my brain.
It's is clearly nonsense, the same kind of logic as people who hate movie critics, but it's gotten a rent-free place in my head for years now.
Something just about the tone of the comment made it stick in my brain.
Makes me wonder if the person who made the comment had themselves written a compiler, or, as I suspect, not.
Well in case it helps, yes that's complete nonsense. Of course languages can be criticised, by anyone, just like everything else. That's how they improve.
I guess by that logic the person shouldn't be criticising your criticism of the language until they've tried criticising the language themselves .
I guess by that logic the person shouldn't be criticising your criticism of the language until they've tried criticising the language themselves .
A few days ago someone got confused by traffic patterns and shouted angrily at me from his car window. He was in the wrong, but still it sticks in my mind. I wish there was a way to have some meta discussion about situations like that without it inevitably being interpreted as a petty continuation of the first-order conflict.
Agreed, this is exactly the same approach I take with my blog.
I see something cool or spend some time figuring out something, I write it down.
I used to write Gists for those things, but I ended to turning Gist into a pseudo database and built my blog to use it as a backend.
I see something cool or spend some time figuring out something, I write it down.
I used to write Gists for those things, but I ended to turning Gist into a pseudo database and built my blog to use it as a backend.
Yeah I relate to this so hard
I've had a blog on and off for many years (link in my bio)
For many years, I shut it down-- changed it from Wordpress to static html and hosted on netlify. Ignored it completely for 3+ years.
Then last year, I restarted it-- moved to Ghost this time-- its a better (simpler?) version of Wordpress. Tried a dozen static generators, hated all of them, as beyond the simple "write 5 blogs and publish" they become hard to use. I like Ghost's front end, like that they take care of hosting. I've had a few articles blow up on HN/Reddit, Ghost managed the spike.
The strange thing is you can never tell which article of yours will blow up. One of mine flopped on HN, 0 upvotes. Then someone else submitted it again, this time it was front page for several hours, got 60-70k visitors in a day. also blew up on Reddit/Linkedin, had random poeple trying to friend me.
Other articles I thought would be useful and in line with what people were discussing here-- vanished without a trace. Or they got 5-10 upvotes, and then vanished (with 0 comments).
I keep the blog now because I see people still find old articles I wrote useful. There is a small expense, but tis worth it, as when I have something to say, I dont have to worry about seeing where I will share it. If nothing else, the few poeple subscribed will see it.
I no longer write to a schdule (which is what marketers advise-- write every week! promote!), as that made me hate it. Now I write what I love. Still try some promotion by sharing here /Reddit, but thats about it. Quit Twitter/FB years ago, so never go there.
So yes, I would recommend people have a blog, even if you publish once every few months. ITs nice to have a platform you control.
For many years, I shut it down-- changed it from Wordpress to static html and hosted on netlify. Ignored it completely for 3+ years.
Then last year, I restarted it-- moved to Ghost this time-- its a better (simpler?) version of Wordpress. Tried a dozen static generators, hated all of them, as beyond the simple "write 5 blogs and publish" they become hard to use. I like Ghost's front end, like that they take care of hosting. I've had a few articles blow up on HN/Reddit, Ghost managed the spike.
The strange thing is you can never tell which article of yours will blow up. One of mine flopped on HN, 0 upvotes. Then someone else submitted it again, this time it was front page for several hours, got 60-70k visitors in a day. also blew up on Reddit/Linkedin, had random poeple trying to friend me.
Other articles I thought would be useful and in line with what people were discussing here-- vanished without a trace. Or they got 5-10 upvotes, and then vanished (with 0 comments).
I keep the blog now because I see people still find old articles I wrote useful. There is a small expense, but tis worth it, as when I have something to say, I dont have to worry about seeing where I will share it. If nothing else, the few poeple subscribed will see it.
I no longer write to a schdule (which is what marketers advise-- write every week! promote!), as that made me hate it. Now I write what I love. Still try some promotion by sharing here /Reddit, but thats about it. Quit Twitter/FB years ago, so never go there.
So yes, I would recommend people have a blog, even if you publish once every few months. ITs nice to have a platform you control.
> moved to Ghost this time-- its a better (simpler?) version of Wordpress
For clarity, Ghost is not a fork of Wordpress. They're written in different languages.
For clarity, Ghost is not a fork of Wordpress. They're written in different languages.
Ghost's overall initial pitch was definitely "Wordpress without the things people often dislike about Wordpress". It's definitely aiming at the same fast install/nice web UI space that made WP dominate the web for a long time.
Originally Ghost was a reaction to the problems some (many?) had with WordPress, it was deliberately trying to be less while doing specific things better (more efficient, easier to design/populate). I've not actually used it despite watching closely early on (I've not used WP significantly myself either, but know people who do/did, who I've helped out on some technical matters) mainly because my own making-content-worth-publishing projects have all come to very little thus far!
From comments (on HN and elsewhere) in recent years I get the impression that Ghost is still a better optimised solution than WP for some common use cases, but has switched direction a bit and started to experience the feature creep that is one of WP's issues which Ghost aimed to avoid.
From comments (on HN and elsewhere) in recent years I get the impression that Ghost is still a better optimised solution than WP for some common use cases, but has switched direction a bit and started to experience the feature creep that is one of WP's issues which Ghost aimed to avoid.
> Ghost is powered by a modern technology stack using Node.js
https://ghost.org/vs/wordpress/
https://ghost.org/vs/wordpress/
Interesting, nice that you like Ghost. I went to university with one of the founders, and I was kinda considering applying for a job there, they seem like a pretty cool company.
Yes HN seems to be largely random chance. I've had this and one other post do quite well on here recently, and both times it was resubmissions that succeeded, with the first submission getting basically 0 votes.
I would also think it's worth keeping my blog around for the few articles people might find useful (there's one about Docker networking that keeps getting visits, even though surely docker must have fixed that bug by now...)
FWIW, my Jekyll + GitHub Pages + Cloudflare blog is free to run & handles HN traffic no problem (apart from the small cost of the domain name, which is sort of optional). I'd be happy to tell you more if you think it might save you some money.
Yes HN seems to be largely random chance. I've had this and one other post do quite well on here recently, and both times it was resubmissions that succeeded, with the first submission getting basically 0 votes.
I would also think it's worth keeping my blog around for the few articles people might find useful (there's one about Docker networking that keeps getting visits, even though surely docker must have fixed that bug by now...)
FWIW, my Jekyll + GitHub Pages + Cloudflare blog is free to run & handles HN traffic no problem (apart from the small cost of the domain name, which is sort of optional). I'd be happy to tell you more if you think it might save you some money.
> Then someone else submitted it again, this time it was front page for several hours, got 60-70k visitors in a day. also blew up on Reddit/Linkedin, had random poeple trying to friend me.
This is often the case. The list of new posts on any given site will be full of junk, so it is down to luck that your content that is worth bothering with gets noticed by people who it is relevant to. As well as voting it up, some of them are likely to post about it elsewhere, or maybe forward the link more privately, and (again with a large luck factor) you might get a chain reaction of interest or it might just fizzle out.
The real luck of the draw comes when someone with a significantly sizes circle of followers forwards or otherwise mentions what you have posted, or⁰ just comments on it, as this increases the change of that chain reaction of interest happening.
The key¹ is to not care for wide dissemination as a goal, just consider it a happy accident if it happens, and instead write what is useful to you and/or your close circles (personal or professional, depending on the nature of the content).
----
[0] if the platform highlights such events to others
[1] I assume, I've not got any of my stuff out there ATM due to lack of time, lack of motivation, and choice paralysis²
[2] which or the many many possible things do I do first?
[3] writing about things can aid understanding, or just help you decide further direction, in the same way that more generally doing can be more effective than reading (after initial research at least)
This is often the case. The list of new posts on any given site will be full of junk, so it is down to luck that your content that is worth bothering with gets noticed by people who it is relevant to. As well as voting it up, some of them are likely to post about it elsewhere, or maybe forward the link more privately, and (again with a large luck factor) you might get a chain reaction of interest or it might just fizzle out.
The real luck of the draw comes when someone with a significantly sizes circle of followers forwards or otherwise mentions what you have posted, or⁰ just comments on it, as this increases the change of that chain reaction of interest happening.
The key¹ is to not care for wide dissemination as a goal, just consider it a happy accident if it happens, and instead write what is useful to you and/or your close circles (personal or professional, depending on the nature of the content).
----
[0] if the platform highlights such events to others
[1] I assume, I've not got any of my stuff out there ATM due to lack of time, lack of motivation, and choice paralysis²
[2] which or the many many possible things do I do first?
[3] writing about things can aid understanding, or just help you decide further direction, in the same way that more generally doing can be more effective than reading (after initial research at least)
> The strange thing is you can never tell which article of yours will blow up.
The HN "new" page is lightly read -- a bit tiresome to page through all the chaff there. So a lot of good thought ages out, content link not followed.
The HN "new" page is lightly read -- a bit tiresome to page through all the chaff there. So a lot of good thought ages out, content link not followed.
It's well worth doing, especially if you have an important series of events to chronicle. I started my original blog in the late 90s: I wrote the software myself (probably badly) and based it on PHP and MySQL: I thought other bloggers at the time did that as well.. maybe they didn't :) Anyway, I chronicled the first 5 years of my new family growing up, complete with pictures, and diligently backed up the precious database on a regular basis, to CD. Then, after moving house a couple of times I realised that I'd physically lost the F**** backup, and my blog was lost forever. I never quite got over that. Nowadays it wouldn't be a problem with multiple backups to Cloud etc. If you're going to start a blog on any platform, make sure you back it up!
How about the wayback machine?
Can you find it on the internet archive? https://archive.org/
I second this suggestion - definitely worth trying. My own frivolous homepage on a Demon Internet subdomain was archived in '96 and it wasn't exactly page of the day so there's a good chance your stuff was captured. Incidentally, I believe that if you have a current robots.txt on the current domain (not the archived) in question that disallows access to the pages then although they're archived they won't show in waybackmachine's archive. You can enable access to them by allowing them in the (current) robots.txt and they should show up again. Presumably you'd have to wait for waybackmachine to re-crawl your robots.txt
Worth a shot?
Worth a shot?
yeah! I actually tried the Wayback Machine/Archive, and sure enough my blog is there. However, I designed it to just have (say) 5 lines of content under the header, then the reader would clock on "More" to read the whole article. This is because the blog was originally designed to be accessed on a WAP-capable phone (https://youtu.be/Da8_4NqxLM8?t=18). Sadly, in my case this meant running a database query and of course the Archive doesn't support that as there's no database :/ I just need a couple of days to have another look for that CD ...
I feel a particular mix of disappointment and loss(?) every time I encounter an interesting link on a long-dead site only to find that the target, never saved, is lost to time. And the same for pages with crucial, unsaved images. Better the proverbial ignorance, I guess.
Though, have you looked at the Wayback Machine Site Map and URLs views for your blog? On the off chance that the Alexa crawler could already extract URLs from JavaScript back then, there's a possibility that additional requests were captured that can't be played back in the Wayback Machine. (This all assuming the site was served over HTTP to the crawler--otherwise it would have only gotten an 'unsupported' page, right?)
Though, have you looked at the Wayback Machine Site Map and URLs views for your blog? On the off chance that the Alexa crawler could already extract URLs from JavaScript back then, there's a possibility that additional requests were captured that can't be played back in the Wayback Machine. (This all assuming the site was served over HTTP to the crawler--otherwise it would have only gotten an 'unsupported' page, right?)
I tried, and failed. I shall know for next time :(
The Wayback Machine has not archived that URL. This page is not available on the web because of server error Click here to search for all archived pages
The Wayback Machine has not archived that URL. This page is not available on the web because of server error Click here to search for all archived pages
People used to keep commonplace books, which were collections of quotations you'd read and wanted to keep. I use my blog for this: it's just a single page of text, with 482 entries on it, mostly quotes from books or articles, occasionally movie quotes. I use it as a reference all the time.
Back in the olden days, that was my .plan file
anarchaia[0] was the original tumblelog as far as I know, and it was basically a dump of interesting links, quotes, pictures and minor writings, collected by day.
I always thought it was a pretty awesome way to collect things.
[0] https://anarchaia.org/archive/2006/03.html
I always thought it was a pretty awesome way to collect things.
[0] https://anarchaia.org/archive/2006/03.html
The most convincing arguments for not having a blog, however, cannot be found in a blog post.
I've been (technically) blogging on my own site for 12 years, and a number of years before that on another platform. I'd say around 10 of those posts have made the front of HN.
I struggle to (a) come up with things to write about and (b) get motivated to blog (which is probably the reason for (a)). I also feel that it's a lot harder to reach people now ...not sure if I'm writing about less interesting topics, or if my previous year-long hiatus drove away my readers. But whatever it is, it feels a lot more like a chore now than it ever did.
I struggle to (a) come up with things to write about and (b) get motivated to blog (which is probably the reason for (a)). I also feel that it's a lot harder to reach people now ...not sure if I'm writing about less interesting topics, or if my previous year-long hiatus drove away my readers. But whatever it is, it feels a lot more like a chore now than it ever did.
I've wanted to start a blog. What's the simplest way to do it?
All I can find online is those marketing articles. HN Brain must have some better advice.
All I can find online is those marketing articles. HN Brain must have some better advice.
Any one of the hosted blogging providers would be the simplest.
wordpress.com?
Only if you have a budget for the blog or don't mind displaying random ads to your audience.
The best route is either to roll your own or go with a service like Ghost. Sure, you'll have to pay hosting, but you're not going to have shitty ads run on your blog.
Substack seems to be a decent technology; the problem is that it's owned by Y Combinator, which means it can't be trusted--if you piss off whoever's running YC at the time, you can be suddenly banned and have your data stolen.
Substack seems to be a decent technology; the problem is that it's owned by Y Combinator, which means it can't be trusted--if you piss off whoever's running YC at the time, you can be suddenly banned and have your data stolen.
I agree. If you want to start a blog use something like Wordpress to get going. If you want to mess around with tech and never actually write anything because you're having too much fun trying out half a dozen static site generators, I like Jekyll.
I think I caught some splash damage off this comment, haha
I settled on Hugo myself
I settled on Hugo myself
Wordpress is not a bad alternative.
Personally I would go with Hugo though. The main reasons for that: a) Native Markdown support – you can store your blog posts in a Git repo. b) Much much easier to write a custom theme for Hugo than for Wordpress.
The CMS part of Wordpress is quite good!
Personally I would go with Hugo though. The main reasons for that: a) Native Markdown support – you can store your blog posts in a Git repo. b) Much much easier to write a custom theme for Hugo than for Wordpress.
The CMS part of Wordpress is quite good!
You can use Wordpress (self hosted) as a CMS for a static site with the right plugin.
There are downsides if you do this the free way; anything dynamic stops working if it was a WP module (forms, search etcetera). However, if it's a basic blog, it'll work just fine. SimplyStatic does have a paid version that supports search, and if you need low-volume forms you could probably use JotForm or similar in JS/HTML embed/iframe mode.
Before I switched to static export of WP, I had OTP auth enabled for both the admin and editor accounts. That hasn't changed. I also use a webp plugin that rewrites all image elements (in posts at least) to picture elements; browsers can then pick between the original JPEG or the converted-to-WEBP image. Static export respects this element rewrite.
To enable static exporting, I
* migrated the live site to a new subdomain, * added the Simply Static plugin, * configured SS to not go near wp-uploads - I don't want to double my disk usage, * configured nginx to alias the wp-uploads from the dynamic subdomain to the static site, * configured nginx to HTTP-auth protect the dynamic site - belt/braces approach on top of the existing OTP auth.
I don't care much about publishing from the Wordpress app on my phone, so the HTTP auth hasn't been a problem for me.
Publishing is "create new post, review it on dynamic site, open the SS generate page, click button". It could be automated, but it doesn't bother me enough to do that.
A side-effect is that the blog is never down due to things like Wordpress upgrades (ie, the maintenance page that shows up), because it's not actually powered by WP.
There are downsides if you do this the free way; anything dynamic stops working if it was a WP module (forms, search etcetera). However, if it's a basic blog, it'll work just fine. SimplyStatic does have a paid version that supports search, and if you need low-volume forms you could probably use JotForm or similar in JS/HTML embed/iframe mode.
Before I switched to static export of WP, I had OTP auth enabled for both the admin and editor accounts. That hasn't changed. I also use a webp plugin that rewrites all image elements (in posts at least) to picture elements; browsers can then pick between the original JPEG or the converted-to-WEBP image. Static export respects this element rewrite.
To enable static exporting, I
* migrated the live site to a new subdomain, * added the Simply Static plugin, * configured SS to not go near wp-uploads - I don't want to double my disk usage, * configured nginx to alias the wp-uploads from the dynamic subdomain to the static site, * configured nginx to HTTP-auth protect the dynamic site - belt/braces approach on top of the existing OTP auth.
I don't care much about publishing from the Wordpress app on my phone, so the HTTP auth hasn't been a problem for me.
Publishing is "create new post, review it on dynamic site, open the SS generate page, click button". It could be automated, but it doesn't bother me enough to do that.
A side-effect is that the blog is never down due to things like Wordpress upgrades (ie, the maintenance page that shows up), because it's not actually powered by WP.
It sounds and looks ideal but it can get costly if you want to do anything non-standard. And by non-standard I mean something as simple as adding a ConvertKit newsletter signup form to your blog, at which point you need a business package that cost non trivial $.
I used to recommend Wordpress.com. I don't anymore. Self hosted Wordpress has its own issues. Even with no plugins, you still have a very real prospect of malware finding its way onto your site if you don't keep everything fully up to date.
I used to recommend Wordpress.com. I don't anymore. Self hosted Wordpress has its own issues. Even with no plugins, you still have a very real prospect of malware finding its way onto your site if you don't keep everything fully up to date.
Search HN history, I remember that question being asked on here recently, more than once. Quite a few recent ones here:
e.g. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=fal...
e.g. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=fal...
For ease of starting, I recommend Blogger - https://www.blogger.com/
But I switched to hosting my own static blog with an always-on port-forwarded computer, Pelican and Isso.
But I switched to hosting my own static blog with an always-on port-forwarded computer, Pelican and Isso.
I love Mataroa, the blog platform. It allows you to easily export all of your content and is very small to load. No ads, no tracking. It's free to use, although 9 USD/year brings a couple of premiums.
I've written a blog post about Mataroa: https://pivic.blog/blog/mataroa/
I've written a blog post about Mataroa: https://pivic.blog/blog/mataroa/
The simplest way would be to buy a domain and use a Wordpress hosting website.
What I enjoyed more was writing my own blogging engine and renting a cheap VPS. :)
What I enjoyed more was writing my own blogging engine and renting a cheap VPS. :)
I write my blog using Hugo, it is rather simple to use - just a folder of markdown files.
For publishing, I use netlify (which does the build and hosting). Their free tier is more than enough for me. The domain comes from namecheap.
For publishing, I use netlify (which does the build and hosting). Their free tier is more than enough for me. The domain comes from namecheap.
What's the current (2022) take on Hugo vs. Jekyll?
I'm also wondering if Github Pages is a good alternative for hosting. Judging from their description, it seems to be free, without ads and can optionally be used with a custom domain.
I have been using Hugo, Vercel, and a custom domain for my blog. I have found Hugo + Vercel to work well together. I can't speak for how it compares to Jekyll, but Hugo has been fairly good to work in. I like the development story quite a bit once you get over the initial hump of getting everything setup. I also use Vercel to manage the custom domain, which I consider a bonus.
> Hugo vs. Jekyll
They both work and it's unlikely that either will limit you. Just pick one (I recommend flipping a coin) and go.
They both work and it's unlikely that either will limit you. Just pick one (I recommend flipping a coin) and go.
I have only used Jekyll in the past but I would try Hugo nowadays since it's the "brand new stuff" (only because it's written in Go). Jekyll hasn't been abandoned which means that both are good and I'm sure they have the same set of features.
As for using GitHub to host it, it's still free and you can use a custom domain which is nice.
As for using GitHub to host it, it's still free and you can use a custom domain which is nice.
I strongly second this. It took me some time to learn the first time set up. But it's been well worth it. Now all it takes to post something is write on a plain text file -> git commit the updated folder.
If you want an alternative to Wordpress, I’ve had success running a simple kotlin script that converts google docs into webpages.
Here’s the hackernews discussion around that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23134101
This is the code I run in a cron job: https://gitlab.com/BenWiser/googledocsblog
You do however need a server and your own domain.
Here’s the hackernews discussion around that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23134101
This is the code I run in a cron job: https://gitlab.com/BenWiser/googledocsblog
You do however need a server and your own domain.
Seems like you could get away with using an object store and a serverless function for this. Not sure how pricing would compare to a server, but seems doable.
It really depends on what you define as "simple".
- For some it might be writing HTML and CSS directly and upload the files to some server via FTP.
- For others it would be using a static site generator, and uploading the files via FTP or hooking up a git repo that builds deploys automatically.
- There are hosted blogging services that provide a GUI, hosting and other affordances.
- There are services that are part aggregator part blogging platforms, similar to the above but with social media bells and whistles.
All of the above can essentially be hosted for free or very cheap. Alternatively you can host them yourself which is more involved.
IMO for the tech savvy the second option is likely the most attractive and productive (SSG + git), the third option (blogging platform) is great if you want a GUI and an all-in-one experience that includes hosting. The fourth if you like social network stuff. The first is fast for starting out and can transition into the second down the line if needed.
- For some it might be writing HTML and CSS directly and upload the files to some server via FTP.
- For others it would be using a static site generator, and uploading the files via FTP or hooking up a git repo that builds deploys automatically.
- There are hosted blogging services that provide a GUI, hosting and other affordances.
- There are services that are part aggregator part blogging platforms, similar to the above but with social media bells and whistles.
All of the above can essentially be hosted for free or very cheap. Alternatively you can host them yourself which is more involved.
IMO for the tech savvy the second option is likely the most attractive and productive (SSG + git), the third option (blogging platform) is great if you want a GUI and an all-in-one experience that includes hosting. The fourth if you like social network stuff. The first is fast for starting out and can transition into the second down the line if needed.
I've used bearblog.dev in the past and it seemed to do a good job. Otherwise you could use a static site generator like Hugo or something if your willing to do it a bit more manually. Or even just plain HTML/CSS (could even go without the CSS), which has always seemed like a nice idea to me.
i self host a ghost blog https://ghost.org/docs/install/
For a programmer, the absolutely simplest solution is (likely) using Github pages + Jekyll Now:
- to set the blog up, fork the Jekyll Now repository, and configure it to serve GH Pages
- to add a new article, just add a markdown file to the repository, and push it
To clarify to some of the replies:
"Forking Jekyll Now" is a different concept from "Using Jekyll".
"Jekyll Now" is a preconfigured repository for a blog, that can be used straight away (after configuring the author and blog name in the configuration file, of course).
This is probably an extremely simple way to publish a blog; using bare Jekyll and configuring a blog from scratch is definitely much more work, and I don't classify it as "simplest solution".
"Forking Jekyll Now" is a different concept from "Using Jekyll".
"Jekyll Now" is a preconfigured repository for a blog, that can be used straight away (after configuring the author and blog name in the configuration file, of course).
This is probably an extremely simple way to publish a blog; using bare Jekyll and configuring a blog from scratch is definitely much more work, and I don't classify it as "simplest solution".
I'd say for a Ruby programmer. I've tried installing Jekyll on Ubuntu multiple times and every time it ended up in disaster following fights with Ruby/rbenv/gem/bundler/Jekyll itself.
Github pages is a fantastic way to get a static blog up and running. I use Zola instead of Jekyll to have a little more control over the look/feel/etc and have an automatic RSS feed.
I would recommend Hugo over Jekyll. It seems a bit more modern and user friendly, at least for me it was easier to set up and customize.
The most important question is what posting workflow do you want?
If you want to post only from your computer, then you can go with any of the thousands of static-site generators that are available out there.
If you're OK with posting by pushing a git commit on a repository, then you can post from multiple machines provided that you set up all the actions or CI/CD pipelines to make it work. Some people love setups like this, but it is not for me.
If you want to spend more time writing than fiddling with your blogging system, you can go with a ready-made one such as Wordpress, Ghost, Write.As, Blogger, etc. Usually they have both SaaS and self-hosted versions. Keeping a self-hosted Wordpress safe requires constant attention to updates.
I wrote about how my own blog works[1][2], which is a setup that I don't really recommend for those that just want something simple.
If I were you, I'd invest in a VPS and self-host something. If your objective is blogging for the long run, then you need to own your own platform. SaaS come and go, they change, your data need to be under your control if you're gonna do it for years to come.
[1]: https://andregarzia.com/2022/05/How-this-blog-works-or-embra...
[2]: https://andregarzia.com/2022/05/Got-metaWeblog-API-working-w...
If you want to post only from your computer, then you can go with any of the thousands of static-site generators that are available out there.
If you're OK with posting by pushing a git commit on a repository, then you can post from multiple machines provided that you set up all the actions or CI/CD pipelines to make it work. Some people love setups like this, but it is not for me.
If you want to spend more time writing than fiddling with your blogging system, you can go with a ready-made one such as Wordpress, Ghost, Write.As, Blogger, etc. Usually they have both SaaS and self-hosted versions. Keeping a self-hosted Wordpress safe requires constant attention to updates.
I wrote about how my own blog works[1][2], which is a setup that I don't really recommend for those that just want something simple.
If I were you, I'd invest in a VPS and self-host something. If your objective is blogging for the long run, then you need to own your own platform. SaaS come and go, they change, your data need to be under your control if you're gonna do it for years to come.
[1]: https://andregarzia.com/2022/05/How-this-blog-works-or-embra...
[2]: https://andregarzia.com/2022/05/Got-metaWeblog-API-working-w...
The simplest I saw, install Standard Notes (https://standardnotes.com/ - open source, free) encrypted notes app, write something, then publish it via the interface.
It will create you a blog on their https://listed.to/ webpage
I have a ten year old blog that no one has read but myself in 9 years.
Keeping a journal has a ton of value, people have known this for a long time.
You could just buy a notebook and pen at Walmart for $2 and start writing down your thoughts.
I can't think of a bigger waste of time at this point though than to start writing down your thoughts with the only intention of monetization. If you don't care about other people reading your thoughts, things become really simple.
Keeping a journal has a ton of value, people have known this for a long time.
You could just buy a notebook and pen at Walmart for $2 and start writing down your thoughts.
I can't think of a bigger waste of time at this point though than to start writing down your thoughts with the only intention of monetization. If you don't care about other people reading your thoughts, things become really simple.
I’ve been using blot.im
It’s not free, but it’s cheap and the workflow really works for me.
You keep the files in markdown in a Dropbox folder, and the blot service uses the files to update your blog. This makes it easy to use my preferred editors on my phone, iPad, and windows or Linux desktop pretty seamlessly.
You keep the files in markdown in a Dropbox folder, and the blot service uses the files to update your blog. This makes it easy to use my preferred editors on my phone, iPad, and windows or Linux desktop pretty seamlessly.
Just use wordpress.com until you've found your rhythm. You can explore other technical solutions later.
I have a personal blog since 2001. It was way easier to just write a lot while I was way dumber than what I'm now. It had been abandoned few times and resurrected again.
It actually became pretty popular once upon a time. It became powerful enough to bring products in the limelight of other people (mostly developers), and even bring down a small business (I felt so bad, I took my articles down and apologized to the business owner). I remember helping launch quite a lot of Startups in their very early stage.
Once, in winter of 2010/11, someone walked up to me at HackerDojo (Mountain View), and asked me "Are you brajeshwar.com?" I live on the opposite side of the Globe, so that felt nice.
It became popular enough as a single source of revenue for me and my pre-kid family to survive in a sprawling Mumbai sub-urban locality.
Now, it is rather bare, no analytics, and I don't quite write anymore. However, I would still love to have my own blog for as long as I can. Perhaps I need to start learning something entirely different from what I do or can do, and then blog the hell out of the experience.
It actually became pretty popular once upon a time. It became powerful enough to bring products in the limelight of other people (mostly developers), and even bring down a small business (I felt so bad, I took my articles down and apologized to the business owner). I remember helping launch quite a lot of Startups in their very early stage.
Once, in winter of 2010/11, someone walked up to me at HackerDojo (Mountain View), and asked me "Are you brajeshwar.com?" I live on the opposite side of the Globe, so that felt nice.
It became popular enough as a single source of revenue for me and my pre-kid family to survive in a sprawling Mumbai sub-urban locality.
Now, it is rather bare, no analytics, and I don't quite write anymore. However, I would still love to have my own blog for as long as I can. Perhaps I need to start learning something entirely different from what I do or can do, and then blog the hell out of the experience.
I love the section acknowledging the desire for popularity. Can def see a bit of that in myself & I think many can’t admit that to themselves
I've been blogging on my site for years, have been front page on Hacker News several times, but the most important thing has been giving me a single place for my thoughts.
Be it blog posts as documentation that I can come back to (more info https://www.jvt.me/posts/2017/06/25/blogumentation/) to discussing my salary and job applications, to writing about what I did that week.
It's been so useful just for me, and the fact I get ~20k hits a month, with no ads or anything to boost traffic non-orgsnically, shows that the things I'm solving are useful to others too. It's nice to give back, but it's also just for me
See also https://www.jvt.me/posts/2019/07/22/why-website/
Be it blog posts as documentation that I can come back to (more info https://www.jvt.me/posts/2017/06/25/blogumentation/) to discussing my salary and job applications, to writing about what I did that week.
It's been so useful just for me, and the fact I get ~20k hits a month, with no ads or anything to boost traffic non-orgsnically, shows that the things I'm solving are useful to others too. It's nice to give back, but it's also just for me
See also https://www.jvt.me/posts/2019/07/22/why-website/
Some of the dark sides f blogging.
I recently added my newly re-re-re-redesigned blog to my HN profile, haven't linked it anywhere else or told anyone and already I'm getting tons of bot traffic trying attack it as though it were a wordpress site.
Write a blog, but understand that the interwebz isn't as naive as it used to be.
I recently added my newly re-re-re-redesigned blog to my HN profile, haven't linked it anywhere else or told anyone and already I'm getting tons of bot traffic trying attack it as though it were a wordpress site.
Write a blog, but understand that the interwebz isn't as naive as it used to be.
I discover by accident that if you share a website with specific people you get a lovely small audience of actual users. Nowadays people also never promote your site which is an advantage in this case. Not even google will index without some doing. You get no spam and don't have to pay attention to resource usage. The cheap hosting allows for high resolution images, dozens of GB videos, heavy server side scripts etc And if the hit counter moves to fast you programmatically shut it down for the day.
I use Github to blog my ideas (see my profile) if you're looking for thoughts to read of or ideas for projects it might be worth a look. Ideas4 is more technical due to having ideas of datastructures and programming language theory.
I created a wordpress blog but I didn't want to pay for it going forward. I bought a powerful Hetzner machine as I wanted something to play with at the same time. But my desktop was powerful enough for playing. So on GitHub people can use issues to reply to thoughts and I create a new repository when I get to 100 ideas per post. I have people submit examples of the ideas going forward when they are created. Or if I didn't know the idea already existed.
I use Github as my social network and share my code and try use it to talk to other developers.
I created a wordpress blog but I didn't want to pay for it going forward. I bought a powerful Hetzner machine as I wanted something to play with at the same time. But my desktop was powerful enough for playing. So on GitHub people can use issues to reply to thoughts and I create a new repository when I get to 100 ideas per post. I have people submit examples of the ideas going forward when they are created. Or if I didn't know the idea already existed.
I use Github as my social network and share my code and try use it to talk to other developers.
I have not 1 but 5 blogs/sites:
1. Professional blog where I showcase my different approach to my profession (operations for high tech companies), thoughts on tools, and commentary on industry news. It's kind of boring, but it's for me.
2. Portfolio site. This is where I showcase processes, systems, and tools that I have developed for the companies I have worked for or consulted for.
3. Self-therapy secret blog under a pen name that I use to vent to myself and to the world about my challenges (main is that I have anxiety). I need an outlet where I can be unfiltered.
4. Passion blog for one of my hobbies.
5. Passion blog for one of my projects related to my hobby above.
WHY I BLOZg:
Main reason: Writing makes people think better, and better thinking is the secret sauce for better life and better professional performance.
Secondary reason: Yesterday I received a job offer for my next job. It has been a long journey that took me >6 months. Very few of my peers have an online presence and nobody has a portfolio. Having those put me on a different plane than everyone else. Interestingly enough, while I target exclusively Innovative companies, most people (CEOs and CXO) had mixed feelings about my online presence, but a few really liked it and appreciated my commitment to my craft, and my technical knowledge when it comes to web publishing.
So, there's that.
TL;DR: writing will make you think better, and will give you an advantage in your career. And it's self-therapy.
1. Professional blog where I showcase my different approach to my profession (operations for high tech companies), thoughts on tools, and commentary on industry news. It's kind of boring, but it's for me.
2. Portfolio site. This is where I showcase processes, systems, and tools that I have developed for the companies I have worked for or consulted for.
3. Self-therapy secret blog under a pen name that I use to vent to myself and to the world about my challenges (main is that I have anxiety). I need an outlet where I can be unfiltered.
4. Passion blog for one of my hobbies.
5. Passion blog for one of my projects related to my hobby above.
WHY I BLOZg:
Main reason: Writing makes people think better, and better thinking is the secret sauce for better life and better professional performance.
Secondary reason: Yesterday I received a job offer for my next job. It has been a long journey that took me >6 months. Very few of my peers have an online presence and nobody has a portfolio. Having those put me on a different plane than everyone else. Interestingly enough, while I target exclusively Innovative companies, most people (CEOs and CXO) had mixed feelings about my online presence, but a few really liked it and appreciated my commitment to my craft, and my technical knowledge when it comes to web publishing.
So, there's that.
TL;DR: writing will make you think better, and will give you an advantage in your career. And it's self-therapy.
You write to discover what you have to say [1]
[1] https://disquiet.com/2019/06/16/word-blog-20th-anniversary-1...
[1] https://disquiet.com/2019/06/16/word-blog-20th-anniversary-1...
In terms of tech, I just started one that allowed me infinite customizability, but still leveraged good solutions to common needs, so I went with Gatsby. It is a static site with a lot of potential functionality.
https://silvertaza.com/startup-paths/
It is still more convenient to do blogging in Substack, but for potential dev content it is too limited in terms of what you can post there. One of my posts has a computer vision based game that leverages the webcam, and that would not have been possible there.
https://silvertaza.com/startup-paths/
It is still more convenient to do blogging in Substack, but for potential dev content it is too limited in terms of what you can post there. One of my posts has a computer vision based game that leverages the webcam, and that would not have been possible there.
A blog is great for storing cryptographic keys. last place anyone will read
I had 2 blogs (one in italian, one in english) for a few years, when I was a student. It was fun, writing was entertaining, comments where insightful, and it got me some jobs too :)
But then life happened, and I stopped writing posts.
Then last year, I realized I was missing it, and I started again. It's interesting to see how my writing muscles have atrophied over the years, and how much harder it is now, but still, maybe those will get strong again.
But then life happened, and I stopped writing posts.
Then last year, I realized I was missing it, and I started again. It's interesting to see how my writing muscles have atrophied over the years, and how much harder it is now, but still, maybe those will get strong again.
Writing has really helped me learn how to think! I highly recommend it. Encourage others to write as well!
It's a skill that transfers well to other places.
It's a skill that transfers well to other places.
I made a deliberate choice with my writing site to not have any tracking of who visits. I could, I suppose to some processing on the logs, but I decided I'd rather just not know if there are any visitors or not. I post a couple-three times a month and once in a great while I'll get a comment that’s not spam and I’m happy with that.
The problem with blogs is that there are just too many interesting ones. I can't go down so many rabbit holes. I prefer to consume them already curated, like from Thinking About Things [0] or reddit.
[0] http://thinking-about-things.com
[0] http://thinking-about-things.com
I didn't want to run a blog but I still want to write about stuff I did sometimes.
So I personally got a Dev Journal thread in my GitHub repo discussion section.
When I feel like writing about something I did I put it there.
I enjoy the same sense of accomplishment as I did running a BBS or installing Linux (and getting the modem driver to work) back in the day.
With side learning/coding and personal hobbies I don't find time to write.
I guess I also waste a lot of time on internet as well.
I guess I also waste a lot of time on internet as well.
[deleted]
I wrote a post several years ago about my struggles with being autistic. I didn't think much of it at the time - I just wanted to vent a bit and I had been using my blog for that since I was a teenager. I applied for a job a couple of weeks after I wrote that post and I was asked during an interview how I thought my autism might impact my work. I was confused at first because I never disclosed that information to them, but perhaps understandably they Googled my name and found my blog at the top of Google.
I started my blog back in 2010 when people didn't care so much about anonymity online. The idea that an employer might check your social media or Google your name was still quite new back then, whereas today I'd guess around 80% of the places I apply to seem to Google my name before conducting an interview. In hindsight I wish I kept the blog anonymous, but there's also technical content on there which I'm proud of and want associated to myself. Either way I'm now in a difficult position where I can't really use my blog candidly any more because I have to consider it more as an extension of my CV.
If you want to express yourself I'd keep it strictly anonymous. If you want to write technical content which you want associated with yourself you should probably do that somewhere else and never mix the two. Having a blog at [firstname][lastname].[TLD] where you express anything personal, especially if that includes political views or thoughts on cultural events is probably not a good idea in this day and age. Arguably even anonymous blogs that discuss politics are dangerous.